Staley, the U.S. national women's coach and head coach at South Carolina, will leave Monday for Miami for a quick mini-cap before the Americans head to Puerto Rico for the FIBA AmeriCup. It's a 10-team, weeklong event among countries in Central, North and South America that starts Sept. 22.

Given the continuing WNBA playoffs, Staley's certain most of the expected Olympians she'll guide in Tokyo next summer like Elena Della Donne of the Washington Mystics and A'ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces will be tied up with their pro teams and unavailable to play in Puerto Rico. Still, she's got commitments from at least eight gold medal winners from 2016 for the 2020 games.

"They're used to working with each other and coming together for a common goal," said Staley, a three-time gold medalist as a player making her Olympic debut as head coach. "The USA Basketball culture is a coach's dream because they just want to win. And when you have that element, you're not dealing with anything besides winning and preparation to win."

Staley followed the men's national team at the ongoing FIBA World Cup in China, both as a basketball fan and a cautionary tale of what can happen when players are not as familiar with each other as the women's teams have been much of the past 25 years .

"We make it look like it's easy" competing against the rest of the world, Staley said. "But we (coaches) stay up at night figuring out how we're going to play."

Having the best players available helps.

Even then, Staley said while scoring is never an issue but defense is where the U.S. women will need to come together if they hope for a seventh consecutive Olympic title.

"It's hard to get them out of their habits and get them...

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Fri, 13 Sep 2019 22:03:54 UThttps://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/crime/article/NJ-financier-adviser-praised-at-NCAA-scandal-14435630.php
article14435630
NEW YORK (AP) — A New Jersey financial adviser was praised for his cooperation and a judge spared him from prison Thursday after he admitted his role in a college basketball scandal.

Munish Sood, 47, was fined $25,000 but was not sentenced to prison or forced to be supervised by probation authorities. U.S. District Judge Kimba M. Wood said she'll rule on restitution at a later point.

A prosecutor praised Sood for testifying at two trials that resulted in the convictions of several men charged in the bribery case, saying Sood provided information the government didn't previously know about as it built its case.

Prior to being sentenced, Sood apologized to "the people I hurt the last few years."

"I have no one to blame but myself," he added.

The prosecution, revealed with arrests in September 2017, exposed a pattern of bribes paid to college basketball players and their families by representatives of corporate shoemakers and financiers and managers looking to represent them when they reached the NBA.

Four assistant college coaches pleaded guilty in the case.

Prosecutors portrayed the schools as victims of the bribery schemes, saying reputations the schools relied on to attract top recruits were damaged by the scandal.

During testimony at a trial last October, Sood said he gave about $19,500 in 2017 to the father of top recruit Brian Bowen Jr. to get him to commit to the University of Louisville. After the payments were revealed, Bowen left Louisville. The school also fired coach Rick Pitino.

Last year, Sood was among defendants sued by Bowen in federal court in South Carolina.

The lawsuit, seeking unspecified damages, alleged that the bribery schemes denied players like Bowen the chance to grow their talents in college before they became professionals.

In July, the...

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Thu, 12 Sep 2019 22:24:26 UThttps://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/education/article/Drake-basketball-player-charged-after-off-campus-14434943.php
article14434943
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Drake men's basketball player has been charged with an off-campus shooting that he says was accidental.

Des Moines police say Tremell Murphy was charged Thursday with discharging a firearm inside city limits and making false reports to law enforcement. Court records don't list the name of an attorney who could comment for him.

A university spokesman says Murphy has been removed from basketball activities. Murphy was a starting forward for the Bulldogs as a junior last year.

Police say the shooting occurred the night of Aug. 31 during a party at a home near campus. Officers found a 19-year-old man bleeding from his head and noticed a bullet hole in a nearby wall, leading them to believe the shot had come from Murphy's adjacent room. Police say Murphy first insisted the man had fallen but later acknowledged he'd accidentally fired the .22-caliber bullet.

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Thu, 12 Sep 2019 19:12:38 UThttps://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/crime/article/Adidas-fixer-gets-1-year-of-probation-in-college-14429135.php
article14429135
NEW YORK (AP) — A former Adidas consultant was sentenced Tuesday to one year of probation after prosecutors credited him with helping secure convictions against an executive for the shoe company and two others in a college basketball corruption scandal.

Thomas "T.J." Gassnola had pleaded guilty to being a fixer in a scheme to lure prized prospects to Adidas-sponsored hoops programs by funneling tens of thousands of dollars in secret payments to their families.

"I'm sorry for the harm I caused in this matter," Gassnola said at the hearing in federal court in Manhattan.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan imposed the light sentence after being told in court papers that Gassnola's cooperation was critical in expanding the scope of the investigation and providing an "insider's view" of the corrupting influence of corporate money on college basketball.

Gassnola, 47, became a key government witness at a trial last year in Manhattan where the self-described "recruitment facilitator" caused a stir by dropping the names of several top players at the center of the scandal and referring to the deal-making as "black ops."

Asked what he meant by that, he responded, "It's dark. Underground. You don't want anyone to know about it."

While working under the direction of Adidas executive James Gatto, he said he paid out $15,000 in cash in 2015 to try to lure DeAndre Ayton to an Adidas school only to see him sign with Nike-sponsored Arizona. Ayton attended Arizona for his freshman season before being drafted No. 1 in the NBA by the Phoenix Suns.

He also testified about meeting with the mother of McDonald's All-American Billy Preston in a hotel room in 2016 to bring him to Kansas for $90,000, warning her away from other recruiters who were less discreet about the money.

School spokesman Michael Schoenfeld said in a statement Saturday that a "thorough and objective" probe led by investigators outside the athletic department found "no evidence to support any allegation" that would have jeopardized Williamson's eligibility.

Duke athletic director Kevin White said in April that the school would investigate after lawyer Michael Avenatti accused Nike Inc. of paying Williamson's mother to persuade him to attend a college affiliated with the Beaverton, Oregon-based shoe company.

Avenatti said in a statement Saturday that he "never heard from anyone associated with Duke" about the investigation and repeated his claim that Williamson was paid to attend the school.

"The documents and the hard evidence do not lie," he said.

Williamson was taken first overall by the New Orleans Pelicans in the NBA draft after earning Associated Press player of the year honors as a freshman at Duke.

Avenatti has pleaded not guilty to charges he tried to extort up to $25 million from Nike by threatening to publicize claims the sportswear company enabled payouts to promising young athletes and their families.

Avenatti has released material his attorneys say support his claims the sportswear company was paying amateur athletes.

He gained fame by representing porn star Stormy Daniels and sparring on social media with President Donald Trump.

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More AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/Collegebasketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

When others are talking football, you're pointing to enrollment figures (yeah, your team is pretty good, but we've got more students!).

So, this past week has been a bit of a culture shock after the Panthers' stunning upset of Tennessee.

The emails. The tweets. The Facebook posts. All of them, congratulating me (Class of 1985).

It's all so new, so weird.

Maybe you can relate if you're one of the many who did not graduate from the Alabamas, Oklahomas or Ohio States of the world.

"The exposure it's brought to our university has just been incredible," Georgia State athletic director Charlie Cobb marveled when reached by phone Friday morning.

Last weekend, you may have heard, the Panthers pulled off one of the biggest triumphs in school history (admittedly, a very short list) when they knocked off mighty Tennessee (OK, that description is a bit dated) on the hallowed, checkered turf of Neyland Stadium.

Suddenly, everyone was gushing over this university that takes up a large swath of downtown Atlanta but goes largely unnoticed in a city that is focused on the Braves and the Falcons, the Hawks and Atlanta United, the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech.